Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Visiting Tea Factories in Sri Lanka!

During this trip we've spent a lot of our time visiting some of Sri Lanka's finest tea factories and estates. Here are some of the highlights:

We started off with the Lumbini Tea Factory in the south. This is a low-altitude tea factory famous for its high quality Ceylon teas. We had a chance to tour the estate grounds, seeing multiple varieties of tea plants (as well as a nutmeg tree and a capsicum garden). It was truly beautiful!

Next we spent the night at the New Vithanakande Tea Factory. This is a large-volume factory that processes tea derived almost entirely from small farms in the area. Running for 24 hours a day, it employs hundreds of local men and women, and has a strong small farm outreach program including a newsletter.

I have included lots of pictures below!  I would love to hear what YOU think of them!

Here is a picture of the tea tasting process at the Lumbini Tea Factory:

A shipping truck from New Vithanakande tea factory:
 

A view from the high mountains of the tea growing region:

Some tea I picked at a teafield near NV:

 The rolling process at NV:

The view from the front of the manager bungalow at New Vithanakande:
 

 The withering process at NV:
 

Our next stops are New Uva Tea Factory and Luckyland Tea Factory... stay tuned!

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for another exciting post! Very pleased to read about (and see beautiful pictures of) the New Vithanakande Estate, as some of our all-time favorite teas come from there (one is the FBOPF-Ex Silvertip "Spider Leg"). In future, when we drink these teas, we will imagine the place whence they came, and the care and skill that went into their production.

    Best wishes for the rest of your journey, and keep the wonderful posts coming!

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